Two already-selected jurors in the Chauvin trial are dismissed for cause…
…as a result of the civil suit settlement in the Floyd family’s case against the city of Minneapolis. The two stated that they knew of the settlement and “would no longer be able to be fair and impartial jurors.”
The Minneapolis City Council is either dumb as a bunch of rocks or knew that this settlement would prejudice a jury (even those members who, unlike the two who were dismissed, assert that they can remain objective). I think that the Council meant for the announcement to be prejudicial. After all, the chosen jurors are not sequestered and therefore not protected from prejudicial stories and events at this point – although there have already been so many prejudicial stories prior to this that it’s hard to believe they haven’t already been deeply affected, no matter what they claim.
As far as the settlement goes, as I chronicled in this comment to a previous post, Minneapolis delayed its payment in the Noor case until the criminal trial of former police officer Noor was over. I believe that was because the Council didn’t want Noor, a Somalian immigrant who wrongly killed a white woman, to be found guilty. And so they held off announcing the settlement until a few days after the verdict.
Not this time.
This case should be moved out of Minneapolis, but so far that’s not happening, although it still could happen.
It’s a great way to tilt the playing field, isn’t it? If you want to help the defendant cop in a criminal case, delay the civil settlement. The public will not draw any inference against the defendant from the absence of that outcome.
Otherwise, cave early and cave big. The public will infer criminal guilt from that.
City governments have found yet another way to demoralize their police departments.
One more example that illustrates why anyone with a smidgen of common sense has very little faith in our civic institutions.
On a fundamental level, putting aside the obvious prejudice against (former) Officer Chauvin, one might think that the tax paying citizens of Minneapolis would be furious over the pay-off to the family of a man who arguably died from ingesting drugs that he was attempting to hide from the police, who were responding to a 911 call about his erratic behavior. Apparently not.
On a somewhat related note. I recently communicated with my Congressman to ask why the identity of the individual who killed Ashli Babbitt is still hidden from the public. I got the stock garbage response; “thank you for your communication…blah,blah, blah”.
Case should be moved to Duluth with a whole new pool of jurors.
And this surprises who?
There is no way in a rational world that a convicted felon, in bad health and a known drug user is worth $27m.
I’d like to see Ben Crump’s settlement demand and materials that justified that number.
The entire City Council must be voted out.
Keith Ellison’s son, Jeremiah Ellison, is on the Minneapolis city council. Both of them openly support Antifa and, of course, Black Lives Matter. Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s Attorney General, is in charge of the state’s case against Chauvin, and every day he sits with the lawyers prosecuting the case.
In an objective universe that will never exist, the Federal government’s civil rights division would investigate the Ellisons for violating the civil rights of Derek Chauvin, who is obviously the victim of a conspiracy by the City Council, the Mayor, and Keith Ellison. Why won’t this ever happen? To say it out loud: black privilege — as long as they’re leftists.
Oldflyer: re Ashli Babbitt: I am not a cop and never even played one on TV. But if I were running an honest investigation of that killing, I would start by asking for an inventory of all firearms issued to officers in the Capitol Police (most especially those on duty that day) and then asking for an accounting of all rounds issued and all rounds discharged. I think there was only one round discharged: at best blindly into a crowd which included other officers, at worst deliberately at the victim. Whatever: it shouldn’t be hard to attach a name to that bullet. But, as you say, “blah blah blah.” Raisons d’état.
Change of venue ? Of course – do it yesterday.
Owen, there is no doubt in my mind that the identity of Ashli Babblitt’s killer is known to the ‘authorities’. That was the reason for my question. My second, unanswered question was, “what was the cause of death of the Capital Police Officer?”.
Those questions about a different issue from the one raised by Neo, and are mentioned only to amplify my point about distrust in various institutions of government. That is not an isolated issue.
Oldflyer @ 5:32: “…[your] point about distrust in various institutions of government. That is not an isolated issue.”
Nope. No, it is not.
Scott Johnson at Powerline Blog is doing daily coverage of the Chauvin trial and it is painful to read how, step by step, the noose is being tightened. The defense counsel seems to be doing as good a job as he can, but he is heavily outgunned and is going to run out of challenges in juror selection.
Chauvin can’t get a fair trial in Minneapolis. It was interesting that the judge allowed one juror who had heard about the settlement, but claimed he could be impartial, stay on the jury (and he was likely lying about the impartiality). The other 5 lied about hearing about it.
Travesty? Yah sure you betcha. And uffdah?
JournoLism, diversity [dogma], Democrat leverage, and echoes. The tell-tale hearts beat ever louder.
1. “The Minneapolis City Council is either dumb as a bunch of rocks or knew that this settlement would prejudice a jury” Consider embracing the power of “and”?
2. @Owen: It’s already known with fairly good confidence who shot Ashli Babbitt, from the photo evidence available on the web (via internet detective work), but the dissemination of that information and pursuit of the story is being blocked for reasons that are not known or clear, aside from a general strategy to starve any story line that is supportive of the Trump administration and the events of January 6th.
Aggie @ 7:49: “…a general strategy to starve any story line that is supportive of the Trump administration and the events of January 6th.”
What can I say, except “agree”? Our only strategy is “silence, exile, cunning.” I will await developments.
The trial’s outcome is already determined. Chauvin is a dead man walking. The repercussions of his conviction will be profound.
Voters are voting to go down Venezuela’s path.
“The entire City Council must be voted out.” Cornhead
That City Council is a perfect reflection of the dominant mind-set of the majority of Minneapolis voters.
From a legal perspective, does or would the failure to transfer the venue for this particular trial to a substantially distant location provide any grounds for an appeal?
And if so, with what prospect of success?
And if the defense did want to try and bring a federal civil rights case in favor of Chauvin’s current prejudicial situation (per Cornflour on March 17, 2021 at 4:37 pm) before, during, or after a verdict is reached, is there any way that can achieve “standing” to actually do so?
Listen to the podcast from Viva Frei from Sunday. The Chauvin section is not split out yet. Below is my commentary I send to my group with timing. A lot of the points above are discussed. A change of venue is really needed. Also the governor/COVID discussion is worth a listen. Essentially the state wants a “lynching” jury.
_________________________________________________________
The bulk of the podcast covered the upcoming George Floyd Trial. However at the 1:00:00 there is an interesting segment about COVID and the governors. At the 1:07:00 mark they discuss Whitmer and how she is in Kama Sutra crosshairs. Also in the segment after the governors they cover various legal topics and they had a prolonged discussion about abortion starting @ 1:15:00 to 1:31:00.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL_qA7HKd6g&ab_channel=VivaFrei
Podcast Sequence
00:00 – Introduction and discussion of the Quebec lockdown. You think we have it bad.
15:00 – Barnes joins and discusses the Chauvin/Floyd case
• In short he thinks it is a lynching jury even though the judge has tried so hard to get a neutral jury.
• $27M settlement with the Floyd family is an attempt to taint the jury. Chauvin has filed for a change of venue.
• BARR sabotaged the attempted plea deal because it would have benefited Trump. Think about that.
1:00:00 – COVID and the Governors
• They KNEW it was bad policy and maintained it because of “orange man bad” narrative
• 1:06:00 – the hole in the Whitmer “kidnapping” plot. It was classic government entrapment
• 1:08:00 – Kama Sutra wants Whitmer neutralized. That is how unlikeable she is that she sees Frau Whitmer is a threat.
1:10:00 – Various lawsuits including Texas vs. Twitter
1:15:00 – Arkansas Abortion Lawsuit.
• Believe it could be overturned (then it goes to the states to adjudicate)
• Scathing words about Planned Parenthood and how the Abortion Industry protects it’s rice bowl.
1:32:00 – Tucker and the military “wokeism” in the upper ranks
1:45:00 – Flynn continued persecution
1:52:00 – other topics including gun control.
The Minneapolis City Council is either dumb as a bunch of rocks or knew that this settlement would prejudice a jury (even those members who, unlike the two who were dismissed, assert that they can remain objective).
Embrace the power of ‘and’.
Have a gander at the employment history and the domestic life of each of the 12 members of the council. About 3/4 of the council have no children and about 3/4 of the council have spent the bulk of their work life (apart from elected office) on the staffs of minor NGOs. Two of them are extreme sexual deviants. One problem Minneapolis has is that its political class is composed of people who scrape through life but have no demonstrated talent for living. (A sterling example would be the quondam mayor, Betsy Hodges, who is just like the current council bar her fancy Bryn Mawr degree). The newspapers and the voting public give their assent to this. Mayor Frey is wet behind the ears and unsuitable for an executive position, but he’s a cut above the rest because (1) he has a wife and child and (2) he could be practicing law.
Chauvin can’t get a fair trial in Minneapolis. It was interesting that the judge allowed one juror who had heard about the settlement, but claimed he could be impartial, stay on the jury (and he was likely lying about the impartiality). The other 5 lied about hearing about it.
Dunno if they were lying or not. People can be remarkably oblivious to public affairs.
The Poweline guys haven’t been globally critical of the judge. As a layman, I have to wonder why his decisions do not constitute reversible error. The refusal of repeated motions for a change of venue are one problem. His repeated refusals to strike blatantly partial candidates for the jury are another. I wouldn’t rely on the appellate judiciary to correct this, to be sure.
A lawyer I correspond with once served on a selection committee to examine aspirants to judicial positions around Richmond. He said you got three sorts of candidates: (1) career prosecutors, (2) career employees of the state attorney-general’s office, and (3) lawyers in private practice who weren’t making much of a living at it. IOW, mediocrities and people biased in favor of the government. He thought one possible solution would be an age floor to be considered for judicial positions and higher salaries for judges, so you’d have people who put in some time in the profession and you made it attractive for the better sort of lawyer to consider moving from private practice to the bench.
I tend to doubt Chauvin will be convicted, as just two sensible people out of 12 will be sufficient to prevent that. But he’s still facing a great deal of government lawfare. That all these BigLaw attorneys connected to the Democratic Party are willing to contribute their (ordinarily very expensive) time to this horror is just another item on the bill of particulars contra BigLaw and the Democratic Party. BigLaw is begging to be fried by amendments to anti-trust law. It is not a social necessity; Britain gets along passably without anything resembling BigLaw.
Here’s the problem with any change of venue:
There’s no place in Minnesota large enough to accommodate the circus that has not had extensive publicity. The choices, outside the metro area, would be St. Cloud, Duluth and possibly Mankato and Moorhead (where the crowd spills over to Fargo, ND). The cost of moving this apparatus to one of these towns is enormous, and might not gain any measure of fairness.
None of these towns would stand still for it. Hey, kids, the riot’s coming to town!
The Minneapolis City Council members want it in Minneapolis. What is really hard for people to understand is that none of these council members represent their wards. They represent noisy pressure groups. Ranked-choice voting allows serious candidates to be weeded out.
These people think the trial will be a great opportunity for them to get in front of cameras and wave the bloody Floyd flag. I am serious. Andrea Jenkins, the trans woman who represents the most damaged area in Riots 1.0, is the perfect example. When told businesses in her district were having enormous trouble getting what little insurance they had to pay out because of city bureaucracy, she said they should talk to the state attorney general (Keith Ellison!) because it was all white capitalist greed.
The idea that it might actually be her job to help these businesses never occurred to her. A normal thinking council member would be on the phone to these businesses weekly at least, asking how it was going, identifying bureaucratic problems, and pushing city and state agencies to get on the ball. Jenkins thinks her role is to work with the protesters and get camera time for herself.
None of the council members, nor the mayor, a white-shoe lawyer who parachuted in a few years ago, have any interest at all in the long-term health of the city. They’re in office to loot what they can of the wealth of Minneapolis. I would have thought they could keep doing it for 20 years or so. But downtown Minneapolis is collapsing before our eyes. 30 percent of city revenue comes from those downtown office towers, and they have emptied out.
They can’t all be converted into trendy condos, either. Part of the attraction of living downtown is vibrant night life and restaurants. There isn’t any, now. If the suburban residents don’t feel safe coming downtown for a meal and a Twins baseball game, they won’t come.
I’m not timid; I’m a big guy, and I know how to handle the bums and thugs that dominate the streets now. And I don’t go downtown unless I can park underground and reach my destination without going out on street or Skyway levels. People are afraid to walk two blocks from their new spiffy condo building to the Whole Foods, and that’s in the better half of downtown on the east side of the river.
Oh, did I say I’m writing this from Wichita, KS? I’m moving to Phoenix, right now.
The cost of moving this apparatus to one of these towns is enormous, and might not gain any measure of fairness.
Get a grip. The court system budget is a tiny fraction of public expenditure. And there’s no ‘apparatus’ that has to move, just a corporal’s guard of lawyers.
Ranked-choice voting allows serious candidates to be weeded out.
It does nothing of the kind. See Donald Horowitz on the alternate vote as a strategy for tamping down political conflict.
a white-shoe lawyer who parachuted in a few years ago
Like most young lawyers who put in time in BigLaw, he burned out. The firm he was associated with when he ran for mayor is local and has 16 partners and associates.
He lived in Minneapolis for about eight years before running for public office. His wife is Minneapolis born and bred and got all of her schooling there; her mother is Minneapolis born and bred; her father arrived from Wisconsin some time prior to 1983. Unlike the previous mayor and about 3/4 of the city council, he has a child and his wife has time for more.
Hey, Art. How about hotels and meals for two months for the jury (who will be sequestered if it moves), court staff, and all the lawyers and witnesses? Hey, not your pocket, right? Don’t forget we have to find someplace for hundreds of police and thousands of National Guard to eat, sleep and bathe (and do laundry). All of these will be fighting for hotel rooms with all of the media. Oh, and don’t forget the rioters. They have a certain organic base in the Cities, but that’s not so elsewhere.
It’s not trivial. It’s a huge expense, borne not only by the state. There’s the poor freaking defendant, who can afford one lawyer, but he’s going to have to pay for all that lawyer’s expenses in another town, while the Ellison Squad of uncountable (a prosecution lawyer was asked how many by the judge, and couldn’t answer) legal talent bills the taxpayers for all of it.
All this assumes one of these towns allows the circus. No matter what a judge orders, they can refuse, and I expect they have made it clear through channels that they will not accept this mess being dumped in their towns.
Donald Horowitz can theorize all he wants. What I see is a bunch of idiots who have never had productive jobs in their lives winning elections while serious candidates lose in the many layers of recounting.
Small Frey is a white shoe lawyer who decided politics was an easier way to a living. He is not from here, he does not understand the community. His best endorsement was from business people who said he promised a lot but never delivered, which was better than the others, because at least he would listen. He has done better since Riot 1.0, and he’s the only adult in the room, but he is still over his head.
Hey, Art. How about hotels and meals for two months for the jury (who will be sequestered if it moves), court staff, and all the lawyers and witnesses? Hey, not your pocket, right? Don’t forget we have to find someplace for hundreds of police and thousands of National Guard to eat, sleep and bathe (and do laundry). All of these will be fighting for hotel rooms with all of the media. Oh, and don’t forget the rioters. They have a certain organic base in the Cities, but that’s not so elsewhere.
Gordon, in New York State, the Unified Court System budget (covering all superior and appellate courts) is currently $2.3 bn. That amounts to $118 per resident per year, or 0.2% of personal income per capita per year. The court system is hopeless six ways to Sunday, but it’s a small part of public expenditure.
Donald Horowitz can theorize all he wants. What I see is a bunch of idiots who have never had productive jobs in their lives winning elections while serious candidates lose in the many layers of recounting.
Donald Horowitz was theorizing on the basis of empirical observation. Ranked-choice voting benefits candidates who can make themselves a voter’s second choice. That tends to favor blander candidates. You won’t be better off with first-past-the-post voting where a candidate only requires a plurality. Your problem in Minneapolis isn’t ranked-choice voting, but who runs and what the electorate is willing to tolerate.
Small Frey is a white shoe lawyer who decided politics was an easier way to a living.
No, he’s not. He started out as a BigLaw associate, then downshifted. It’s a common story. The mayor is currently receiving cash salary of about $127,000 a year; the median cash salary for an attorney in private practice in Minnesota is $123,000 a year. Maybe he figures a turn as mayor will lead to bigger and better things in law, but I’d be skeptical he’s dramatically improved his situation by getting elected mayor, at least enough to compensate for the loss of privacy and the open-ended demands on his time and skills that occupying an executive position de novo brings. I have little doubt his predecessor did improve her situation dramatically when she took the mayor’s chair; he had something to lose moving into the mayor’s office; B. Hodges did not.
He is not from here, he does not understand the community.
He doesn’t understand much of anything. If he’d stayed in Northern Virginia, you’d see the same problem.
Pro-tip: gassy repetition of the false statements you made in your previous comment doesn’t convert them into true statements.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/03/chauvin-pre-trial-day-10-motion-rulings-portion-of-2019-prior-floyd-arrest-video-can-be-played-at-trial/
Having refused to allow biased jurors to be stricken for cause and having allowed the state to use peremptories to strike from the jury every single white male over the age of 35, judge Cahill has given a small win to the defense. I’m wondering if the state can file some sort of interlocutory motion with the appellate courts to reverse this.
Art Deco;
Many potential jurors were stricken for cause, just not all that you or I would have liked to strike or think should have been struck.
In order for a peremptory challenge to not be allowed, I’m under the impression it must be obviously racial or about a certain group, etc. If they allowed some white jurors, some jurors over 35, and some male jurors, they are not excluding any of those categories.
Many potential jurors were stricken for cause, just not all that you or I would have liked to strike or think should have been struck.
He allowed the state to use peremptory challenges to remove any juror who expressed sentiments of neutrality and then allowed the seating of jurors who averred they could be ‘impartial’ in spite of their biases. Note, many of those he allowed to be struck for cause indubitably wanted out of jury service. Branca and PowerLine have given a precis of some of the exchanges. Yes, the judge struck people for cause – if they were frankly lunatic. As we speak, btw, the ratio of blacks-to-others on the jury exceeds the ratio of blacks-to-others in the Hennepin County population by a factor of 4. Note, white males over 35 make up about 25% of Hennepin County’s adult population. They make up 0% of this jury’s population; I don’t think random selection is the source of that.
Art Deco;
I never said, nor do I believe, the selection process and the exclusion of white males over 35 was random, or even that the judge has been fair in what he allowed. But you wrote he refused to have biased jurors stricken for cause, and I was correcting that claim. I was also pointing out that peremptory challenges are allowed for ANY reason other than race, ethnicity, or sex. Since jurors in all such categories (white OR male OR over-35) were in fact seated, I don’t think the white+male+over-35 challenges would fall under that exception.